PAST PROJECTS

Proctors creative civic endeavors run the gamut from art installations to ‘dangerous’ music

These are popular civic initiatives that have come and gone at Proctors. But you never know … some may return someday!

Art Nights. Art Night Schenectady served as a nexus for the art underground of the Capital Region and an urban audience hungry for excitement, entertainment and new sights, sounds and tastes.

Breathing Lights. Breathing Lights, a temporary public art installation supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, brought a multitude of Capital Region organizations together in the fall of 2016 for “an arts-based approach to stimulating local and regional revitalization.”

Celebration of Rhythm. The three-part 2013-14 Celebration of Rhythm series at Proctors investigated the role of meter, measure and accent in our cultural lives; the wide variety of global beats; and the common threads that bind music together.

Dangerous Music.Entertainment doesn’t need to be light, and art certainly doesn’t need to be safe. The Dangerous Music program at Proctors, made that abundantly clear during the 2008–2009 season. Made possible by a $225,000 grant from the New York State Music Fund, Dangerous Music lived up to its title with a series of challenging performances worthy of its predecessor, Proctors Too.

Party Horns NYC. The brainchild of Schenectady-bred musician Matt Steckler, Party Horns NYC turned the GE Theatre at Proctors in a funky downtown Manhattan club over several nights in 2014, filled with an odd mix of devout musos, jazz curious and eager dancers.

Proctors Too. Blue Man Group started its relationship with Proctors in 1990, at the tiny Nott Memorial (on the Union College Campus) as part of an adventurous, decade-long performance art series aimed at cultivating younger audiences interest in performance art called Proctors Too. While Blue Man Group was the only entry to go on to great commercial success, many artists presented by Proctors Too have gone on to sustain careers rich in genre-bending intellectual provocation and social commentary.

Pathways to Dance. Pathways to Dance was an eight-county Capital Region initiative in 2016 designed to support new dance creation and presentation.

Schenectady Loves Italy. A 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck August 24, 2016 in central Italy, with damage centered in the mountain town of Amatrice. Proctors, recognizing the strong Italian American population in the city and the region, responded by reaching out to other businesses in the community and staging a Schenectady Loves Italy fundraiser the following week.

Schenectady Serves Hurricanes Harvey and Irma devastated communities in Eastern Texas, the Florida Keys, and Puerto Rico. Proctors organized Schenectady Serves, a night of food, music, and community building to help raise money for these victims of the hurricanes. Schenectady Serves is a project of participating restaurants and The Alt; the Schenectady Office of the Capital Region Chamber of Commerce; the City of Schenectady; Schenectady County; The Daily Gazette; DeCrescente Distributing Company; Discover Schenectady; Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corporation; Mallozzi’s; Mazzone Hospitality; Proctors; Rivers Casino and Resort; Schenectady Armory Center; and WGNA.

The Retrievers. The education wing at Proctors—along with a bevy of regional partners—supported The Retrievers, a group of Schenectady High School science students in their goal of developing usable technology for the planned 2020 Mars Rover Mission.